“It was trial and error," explained Taylor of creating his first mask. "For some of the guys, like for Clown, he had that mask since he was 12 years old. That Clown mask was a part of him. He’d had it, still fit, he used it. And when he put it on, he became that guy. The other guys in the band, it was more about, kind of finding what fits them. For me, I didn’t really know where to go at first. So Clown and his wife actually helped me find ... They found an old crash-test dummy’s mask, and we flipped it inside out."

The singer continues, "At the time, I had dreads, and I was pulling the dreads out through these holes, and when I shaved my head, we took all that hair and we stuck it in the masks to kind of keep that look."

Taylor says it was his desire that his mask evolve over time and he got more hands on with the look. "That’s really where my ... difference between all those concepts came up. Like, a lot of the guys in the band are happy with theirs, and they keep theirs. Maybe they’ll change them subtly, depending on who’s making the new ones for us. But for me, I like exploring who I am now. Nothing against the guys in the band, but for me, especially with the lyrics, I’m not the same guy I was four years ago when we did .5, and before that when I did All Hope Is Gone. That guy is constantly changing, so who is that guy in this moment? That’s kind of where I’d come from with the masks now. So I sit down with whoever’s making them and I really kind of talk the concept out."

Taylor says the band has worked with different artists on the masks over the years, crediting Japanese special effects master Screaming Mad George for some of their earlier looks. "He’s a maniac, he’s an amazing artist. He did the masks for us, for Iowa, Volume 3, he did a little work with us on All Hope Is Gone, but then we worked with a bunch of other people," says Taylor, who added this time out that Tom Savini is working with him on his latest mask.

Within the chat, Taylor also discusses the care for each of the masks, some of his early issues with not having a backup mask and more. Check out Corey Taylor's chat with the Let There Be Talk podcast with Dean Delray below.